Contemporary gaming machines such as card games are known. In card games such as video poker, the gaming machines deal hands to a player. Depending upon which cards are in a player's hand, the player may win a value. When the gaming machine provides a hand to the player, the gaming machine typically enables the player to keep the initial cards in the hand and receive the value associated with these cards or give up one or more cards in exchange for new cards. The player's goal is to maximize the opportunity to gain value by holding certain cards and getting new cards.
Certain known gaming machines employ an auto-hold program which informs the player as to which cards to hold for optimal play. The gaming machine processor executing this auto-hold program compares in an iterative manner the initial cards in the hand to a plurality of card patterns. Each card pattern is associated with a predetermined hold pattern, typically determined by the heuristics or experience of successful poker players, such as hold all five cards when they are a straight, hold the three cards when they are three kings or discard all cards. When the dealt hand matches a card pattern in the auto-hold program, the gaming machine indicates to the player which cards to hold in accordance with the heuristics in the auto-hold program.
Similarly, certain known gaming devices enable a player to hold certain reels in a slot game to increase the player's chance to obtain a winning combination on the next spin. In this case, after a spin the processor of the gaming device compares in an iterative manner the symbol combination to a plurality of symbol combinations. Each symbol pattern is associated with a predetermined hold pattern, typically determined by the heuristics or experience of successful slot players. Once the hold pattern associated with that particular set of symbol positions is determined, the gaming device indicates to the player which reels to hold.
The heuristics employed by these gaming devices is substantially accurate, and when wrong, the particular hold pattern is only off, if at all, by a relatively minor amount. To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with new gaming devices providing mathematically precise auto-holds that minimize processing and memory usage.